Monday, October 18, 2010

Marriage Licenses Announced - Meinzen-Bickerstaff

The marriage licenses of four couples were announced in the Warren [Ohio] Weekly Tribune on Thursday, September 10, 1914. They were on page 1, column 5, at the bottom. The names of particular interest to me are the last couple, Wm. C. R. Meinzer and Emma V. Brickenstaff. But the names should have been Wm. C. R. Meinzen and Emma V. Bickerstaff! This announcement was published two days after their marriage on September 8, 1914.

I spent the better part of last Friday at the Ohio Historical Society Archives Library searching through newspapers for obituaries and wedding announcements. I came home nearly empty-handed. I had hoped to find a wedding announcement for my grandparents and felt just slightly discouraged to find only a marriage license announcement.

As I was thinking about it on the way home I realized that these few brief words fill an empty spot in my knowledge about my grandparents and their whereabouts just before their marriage: Gramma's family moved to Mineral Ridge before 1914 (and after the census was taken in 1910); Grampa was still living in Steubenville before they were married.

I would really like to know now is how they met; and whether they were engaged before Gramma left Steubenville or whether Grampa followed Gramma to the Ridge because he didn't want to live without her. Too bad there aren't some undiscovered love letters somewhere! Incurable romantic, you say? Yes, indeed! But I stick with the facts.

3 comments:

I suppose some clerk hastily handwrote the names then handed them to the newspaper clerk, who couldn't read the handwriting. That's my guess.... Strangely enough, Wm. C. R.'s father's obituary has the last named spelled Meinzer, too. (Which seems very sad considering it's his last "public" appearance in mortality.)

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About Me

Sometimes I want to jump back in time, into the lives of my ancestors. Not to stay, of course -- too many modern conveniences I'd rather not do without -- but to meet them and watch their interactions with each other. Since I can't do that, I spend time learning about them and the times in which they lived. I look forward to meeting them. I've been seriously searching for my ancestors for nearly 8 years. I plan to continue indefinitely.
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